Rossendale U13s 7 – 26 Fylde

In the second of the September training games, Rossendale U13s were looking to build up last week’s win against a tough Fylde side. Another “game of 3 halves” was agreed between the coaches to allow time for coaching between periods of play. It was Fylde that got going first, and gave the Dale lads a tough first 15 minutes in which they scored 3 tries, two of which were neatly converted, to end the period 0-19.

After a reshuffle and some strong words of encouragement from the coaches, the lads came out into the second period with a bit more intensity and, whilst defending in the Dale 22, Mark Rutherford-Shaw stepped up quickly to intercept a Fylde pass and sprint the length of the pitch to score. Peter-Jon Butler converted from right in front of the posts. Just before the end of the second period, Fylde managed to sneak round the outside of the Dale defence and score their fourth try and add the extras. The second period ended 7 – 26.

The third period commenced after a few more changes and the hard-fought battle continued. Both sides came close, but neither side was able to break through, leaving the final score unchanged at Rossendale 7 – 26 Fylde. Man of the match was Mark Rutherford-Shaw.

Next Sunday sees another tough challenge with the visit of Vale of Lune to Marl Pits.

It was another gutsy performance from everyone today, with plenty of big hits all over the park. We matched them in many areas but Fylde kept their shape better than we did and distributed quickly across the backs. Most of all, they organised quickly at the breakdown and that's where we struggled today and lost too much ball. We'll be working on that in training on Wednesday and hope to take another big step forward ready for next Sunday's challenge.